Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores how fintech advertising in London shapes retail investors' financial subjectivities. It examines the narratives of empowerment and inclusion in fintech, highlighting how these representations evoke desires and anxieties while reinforcing systemic inequalities under the guise of democratization.

Paper Abstract:

As London solidifies its role as a global fintech hub, home to over 1,600 fintech companies, the industry's rapid expansion is reshaping both the cityscape and public discourse. Fintech advertising, from Tube stations to company websites, promotes a vision of financial participation that invites individuals to invest emotionally and financially, framing retail investors as active agents in a democratized financial system.

This paper explores the affective and narrative dimensions of fintech representations, asking: What desires and anxieties do these advertising materials and corporate documents evoke? How do they reshape financial subjectivities, especially through the lens of “inclusion from below”? Based on ethnographic fieldwork and media analysis conducted in London’s fintech landscape (2022–2023), and using Shiller’s narrative economics framework, I examine how these materials simultaneously offer hope and reinforce systemic inequalities.

I argue that fintech narratives evoke a sense of agency amidst radical uncertainty. However, these discourses—rooted in the rhetoric of financial inclusion—often obscure the broader systemic changes needed for a more secure future. Drawing on Berlant’s concept of cruel optimism and Fisher’s critique of capitalist realism, I show how these narratives offer individualized solutions while perpetuating structural precarities. As the image of the finance industry shifts from traditional institutions like HSBC to fintech platforms, it is key to critically examine the discourses that fintech's promotional materials circulate, revealing how they aid existing power dynamics under the guise of democratization.